The Gold Dragon is arguably the easiest to defeat after the Holy Dragon. It only attacks using Lightning-elemental attacks, Thundaga being its strongest attack, but it has to charge up to use it. Other attacks it uses are Thunder, Thundara, and Gigavolt. The Gold Dragon is weak to Water.

If the party members are immune to or absorb Lightning the battle is already won. The Thunder Shield, Minerva Bustier, and Paladin's Shield all provide the desired effects. Even without Lightning-protection the battle is not hard.

The Gold Dragon is encountered again in the Dragons' Den where it renders most magic useless as it absorbs them due to its inherent Runic. It will only have an effect on spells normally absorbed by Runic. It is still weak against Water attacks.

The Gold Dragon no longer uses its Lightning-based magic attacks, but instead uses powerful physical attacks, some of which are of the Lightning element. It often uses its special attack Mighty Claw to inflict Confuse, and when weak gains Protect status.

The Flood spell works well against the upgraded Gold Dragon. The player is advised to bring a party of strong physical fighters like Locke, Cyan, and Shadow. Characters like Mog and Strago are also useful, as they have healing and protective abilities that are not absorbed by Runic.

An alternative strategy is to fight a normal group of monsters before fighting the Gold Dragon, have somebody in the party summon the Phantom esper and quickly escape. With this, the party will have the Vanish status, and become immune to its physical attack and Mighty Claw, but Plasma will remove the Vanish status after hitting.